Snowmen and Snowmonsters: A First Sketch

Over on Facebook, some joking posts back and forth with Jason Mical about today’s forecasted Seattle Snowpocalypse has prompted me to play with the design for a snowman-themed RPG. In the spirit of designing and failing in public, here’s what I’ve got so far after thirty minutes or so of noodling:

ROLLING UP A SNOWMAN

Snowmen have three stats, one for each of the three rolled snowballs that make up their body:

( ) SMARTS
( ) STRENGTH
( ) SPEED

Each stat is rated between 1 and 5. You create a character by dividing 6 points among your stats, putting at least 1 into each stat.

1
2 Average
3
4
5

The larger the stat, the larger the snowball.

EXAMPLE: Three example characters.

Albert, A smart but weak snowman of average speed:

(---3---)
(-1-)
(--2--)

Burt, A burly snowman who isn’t very bright or very fast:

(-1-)
(----4----)
(-1-)

Charlie, A snowman who’s a little weaker than normal, but also a little faster than normal

(--2--)
(-1-)
(---3---)

STAT CHECKS

To make a stat check, you roll 3d6. Each die that matches or is below your stat is a success.

1 success is a Normal success, 2 successes is a Great success, and 3 successes is an Amazing success!

EXAMPLE: Melissa is playing Albert the Snowman, and needs to make a Speed check to outrace a Yeti.

Albert’s Speed is 2. Melissa rolls 3d6 and gets a 1, a 2, and a 4. The numbers on two of her three dice are equal to or below Albert’s Speed of 2. That’s 2 successes–a Great success!

I like the three snowballs as the three stats, but I’m still not sure of the central dice mechanic. More to the point, I’m not sure about the dice generating successes that are treated with number and quality like that. I feel like the game could be pointed toward a younger audience, so maybe the dice could generate chips players could spend later for some purpose?

I’ll be thinking about this later as I work on assignments with deadlines. If we do indeed get as much snow as is forecasted, I’ll probably be inspired to work on this some more tomorrow.